In fact, it only took three sets for the undefeated Panthers to dispatch St. Pauls 25-9, 25-12, 25-15 in the opening round of the NCHSAA 2-A state playoffs Saturday.

East Duplin (20-0), the No. 1 seed out of the East Central Conference, will play host to Bartlett Yancey (13-9) Tuesday, with the time to be determined. Bartlett Yancey is the second seed from the Mid-State Conference. St. Pauls, the No. 3 seed out of the Three Rivers Conference, finishes 5-16.

“I’m glad we’ve got a Saturday game behind us,” coach Liz Turner said. “It’s always tough coming in after a Saturday because they’re not really used to playing on Saturday. I felt like we played better our first two sets and I feel like our third set were kind of here and three.”

In fact, Turner called a timeout with the set tied 12-12. After that, the Panthers outscored St. Pauls 13-3 en route to the win.

“We kind of got it together after that,” Turner said, adding her team missed “entirely too many serve,” which prompted some post-match conditioning for the Panthers. “I hope that’ll clear that up and won’t have to worry about that issue next time.”

Perquimans 3, Lejeune 0: Lejeune’s season ended with a loss at Perquimans in the first round of the NCHSAA 1-A playoffs.

The Devilpups were the fourth seed from the Coastal Plains Conference and finish 10-9.

Lejeune 18 11 14

Perquimans 25 25 25

LEADING PLAYERS—NA. RECORDS—L: 10-9, season complete. P: 24-2, hosts Rosewood on Tuesday in second round.

Fairmont 3, Dixon 0: It was close, painfully close, but Dixon came up short in the opening round of the NCHSAA 2-A playoffs, falling in straight sets to Fairmont, which won the three sets by a combined 10 points.

Croatan 3, West Bladen 0: Croatan swept past West Bladen in the first round of the NCHSAA 2-A playoffs. Further information wasn’t available.

The Cougars (12-6), the No. 3 seed out of the East Central Conference, will travel Tuesday to South Columbus (17-2), which beat East Bladen 3-0. South Columbus is the No. 1 seed out of the Three Rivers Conference.

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TENNIS

Bryant advances: East Duplin senior Rebekah Bryant advanced to the NCHSAA 2-A tournament after a third-place finish in the East Regional tourney at Greene Central High School.

The Panthers’ Madison Sholar along with East Duplin’s doubles teams of Laken Teachey and Maggie Weis and Stacie Whaley and Kerry Miller advanced to the second round before losing.

3-A regional: White Oak’s doubles team of seniors Taylor Blackmon and Sabrina Yager finished fourth in the NCHSAA 3-A East Regional tournament at Wilson Fike High School to advance to the state tourney.

The state event is Friday at the Cary Tennis Center.

Blackmon-Yager went 2-2 in the regionals. They won 6-3, 6-2 and then 6-4, 6-4 before falling 6-1, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-1.

Blackmon finished the regular season 16-0 in singles and is the first female tennis player in WOHS history to go undefeated. Sarah Hambright, who advanced to the second round of regional play, was the Coastal 3-A Conference player of the year.

Jacksonville had one singles player and a double team fall in the first round of the regionals as Kate Reeves lost 6-0, 6-0 while the team of Morgan Neofotis and Alexis Hurd lost 6-2, 6-3.

1-A regional: Lejeune had two doubles teams advance to the second round of the NCHSAA 1-A East Regional tournament Friday at Franklin Academy High School in Wake Forest.

The teams of Brigid Detreux and Caroline Christmas and Belle Banta and Megan Jenson won their first matches before falling in the second round.